10 questions for an educational adviser using ETpedia with trainee teachers

For Mario Lecluyze, an educational adviser, ETpedia has helped him prepare sessions for teachers learning particular aspects of English teaching.

We asked Mario 10 questions about his role and how he uses ETpedia as a practical resource.

1. What’s your name?

Mario Lecluyze.

2. Where do you work?

As a part-time teacher of English as a Foreign Language in the city of Waregem, in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium. The rest of the time I work as an educational adviser for TEFL for the catholic secondary schools in the diocese of Bruges.

3. What type of institution is it?

The ‘college’ where I work as a teacher is a secondary school for general education with around 1,800 pupils, aged 12 to 18. As an adviser, I work for the umbrella organization that represents all catholic schools (which is the majority in Belgium).

4. What are your main day-to-day responsibilities?

My job as educational adviser boils down to a few things. I mainly have to guide and support schools in their TEFL-policy and coach teachers of English in all aspects of their profession. I also have to make them familiar with new curricula and new insights in education, and stimulate them in their own professional development.

5. What are some of the challenges?

Being a teacher nowadays is not that simple anymore. Pupils have changed and society expects a lot from us. More and more challenges are coming our way. Moreover, a teacher also has more administrative work to do. “Lack of time” is what most teachers experience, I guess.

6. What aspects of ELT are you especially interested in at the moment?

At the moment, how teachers can work with mixed ability classes (differentiating for weaker, but also stronger pupils) and how they can adapt their evaluation system to the different levels of individual pupils. Also, how Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) works.

7. How is ETpedia helpful in your work?

As an educational adviser I quite often have to give sessions for teachers on a particular aspect of English teaching. I frequently use the ideas in ETpedia as a kind of checklist when preparing those sessions. I have already used ideas in my own teaching practice as well.

8. Which section of the book has been especially useful? Why?

I have used a few sections lately, e.g. the one on “strategies for teaching mixed-ability or multi-level classes” and also the one on “popular websites for English language teachers”. I have integrated and elaborated some of the ideas in a session. I have also advised the book to starting teachers, because it provides them with lots of useful and practical tips.

9. Which activity in a unit have you tried that worked well?

From the section on “activities for your first lesson”, I have tried the “true or false” activity, where the pupils have to discover a lie in three statements. They really seemed to enjoy it, and so did I.

10. What’s one more teaching tip or activity that would add to ETpedia?

I enjoy using web resources in my teaching and I have made a “teacher online toolkit” with lots of useful sites here.

Thank you to Mario for answering our questions. Are you in need of practical lesson ideas or seeking ELT tips? Purchase your copy of ETpedia here.